Shen Hanyi took the jade bottles and pulled out the stopper of one.
Inside lay two pills the size of longan fruit, radiating a gentle glow. They were indeed True Condensing Pills, and one of them shone more brightly, clearly a high-grade pill.
She then opened the second jade bottle.
Instead of a refreshing medicinal fragrance, a strange and slightly heated aura drifted out.
Over a hundred small blue pills spilled forth.
Lock Yang Pills.
Zhou Kai: “…”
He remembered clearly that he had placed the two True Condensing Pills into separate bottles for convenience. How could there be Lock Yang Pills mixed in?!
It must have been when he robbed those two unlucky fellows earlier. He had stuffed everything into his Storage Pouch without checking. In his haste just now, he must have taken out the wrong bottle.
A mistake. A grave mistake.
As expected, Shen Hanyi’s gaze moved away from the Lock Yang Pills and returned to Zhou Kai’s face. Her eyes were as calm as an ancient well, perhaps even colder than before.
Zhou Kai’s thoughts raced. Since things had come to this, he decided to push forward boldly.
The awkwardness vanished from his face, replaced by a carefully crafted expression of reluctance and faint pain. He let out a deliberate sigh, his gaze lingering meaningfully on the True Condensing Pills.
“Fairy, you may not know this, but refining a True Condensing Pill, especially a high-grade one, is incredibly difficult. The materials required are all heavenly treasures. One must also seek special earth flames and exhaust immense mental effort… If not for you, Fairy…”
He left the sentence unfinished, but the implication was clear. These pills did not come from the wind. Want them for free? Impossible.
Shen Hanyi’s cold eyes quietly observed the “genuine emotion” on Zhou Kai’s face.
“So that is the case,” she said calmly, her tone unreadable. “At the beginning, you placed this item alongside the True Condensing Pill. Later, you mentioned ‘yin and yang harmonizing’…”
Her gaze seemed to pierce straight through him, making Zhou Kai feel extremely uncomfortable.
Then she dropped a bombshell.
“You wish for me to become your furnacevessel?”
“Pfft—cough, cough!”
Furnacevessel?!
I treat you as a long-term confidante interaction target, and you think I want to turn you into a consumable resource?!
Before Zhou Kai could speak, Shen Hanyi continued on her own.
“My physique is special. I was born with a Sword Embryo. Before reaching the Spirit Shaping Realm, I cannot break my primordial yin.”
She knew clearly that if the foundation of her Sword Embryo was destroyed, she would not even escape the Hidden Beast Mountain Range, let alone pursue the Great Dao in this life.
“After I reach the Spirit Shaping Realm.” Shen Hanyi looked at Zhou Kai without the slightest trace of shyness or embarrassment, only a promise that resembled a contract.
The Spirit Shaping Realm was the next major realm after the Sword Dominion Realm, equivalent to the Foundation Establishment Realm of orthodox cultivators.
“The grace you show today in helping me repair the foundation of my Sword Embryo with these pills, I will repay.”
“Whatever you desire, as long as it is not excessive harvesting and does not violate my own Dao.”
Repay… me?
Zhou Kai’s mind froze again.
Does this mean… she agreed?!
Although the process was twisted and full of misunderstandings and assumptions, the result seemed… to have converged in the same direction?
After speaking, Shen Hanyi ignored the petrified Zhou Kai. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
She took out the True Condensing Pill, poured out the high-grade one, and swallowed it without hesitation.
The pill dissolved instantly, transforming into a vast yet gentle warmth that surged toward her cracked Sword Embryo.
She closed her eyes, palms facing upward, and focused entirely on refining the medicinal power.
Inside the cave, only the crackling of the fire and Zhou Kai’s breathing remained.
Zhou Kai loosened his grip on the Flight Escape Talisman in his hand and felt his heart struggling to withstand such a plot development.
This Sword Fairy’s way of thinking truly defied ordinary logic.
She actually… agreed just like that?
Even though it was based on the beautiful misunderstanding of “furnacevessel,” and she had issued a long-term promise of “after reaching the Spirit Shaping Realm.”
But… she agreed, didn’t she?!
“Profit! Massive profit!” Zhou Kai rejoiced inwardly. “The process was strange, but the outcome is good! Spirit Shaping Realm? Then Spirit Shaping Realm it is. I have the system. I can wait! Besides… hehe, doesn’t this count as pre-ordering? Long-term investment!”
He looked at Shen Hanyi’s breathtaking profile. Under the firelight, her coldness had softened slightly.
Yes, her thinking might be strange, but that face, that figure, those long legs… definitely a top-tier confidante.
Worth it. Absolutely worth it.
Strategy? What strategy? Didn’t we just fast-forward straight to a repayment agreement?
Although the nature of that “repayment” was somewhat… crooked.
…
Time passed quietly in the dull rhythm of meditation and healing.
A full day and night slipped by.
When Shen Hanyi opened her eyes again, the light in them had clearly returned.
Two True Condensing Pills, along with the Rejuvenation Pills and Qi Gathering Pills Zhou Kai had provided, had worked wonders.
Her complexion regained its flush, and her aura became steady and deep. Though her cultivation had only recovered to the 6th stage Sword Dominion Realm, her internal injuries were mostly healed.
Most importantly, although cracks still lined her Sword Embryo and its glow remained dim, it had stabilized and was no longer in danger of collapse. With careful nurturing over the next few months, it would return to its original state.
Just then, faint footsteps and hushed voices came from outside the cave. Though deliberately suppressed, they were clear in the silent forest.
“Has this side been searched?”
“No. Too many vines here. Hard to investigate…”
“Be thorough! Shen Hanyi is severely injured. She can’t have gone far! The sect has given strict orders. Alive or dead, we must see her!”
They were from the Celestial Spring Sect. They had reached this area.
Zhou Kai’s expression changed. He held his breath and looked at Shen Hanyi.
He truly feared that the straightforward Sword Fairy would charge out and start another fight.
Shen Hanyi frowned and said seriously, “Before I repay my debt, I will not place myself in mortal danger.”
Was that… a form of assurance?
Zhou Kai felt relieved. This story is hosted at g.com.
Look at that awareness! Once she owes a debt, she will repay it, and to do so, she will strive to stay alive.
What a good girl.
“Don’t worry!” Zhou Kai whispered, feeling an unprecedented surge of possessiveness in his heart. “As if I’d let you fall here.”
Without hesitation, he took out his last Flight Escape Talisman.
“Take it!” He stuffed it into Shen Hanyi’s hand. “If you can’t escape, activate it and you’ll instantly teleport 100 meters away.”
A trace of surprise flickered in Shen Hanyi’s eyes as she looked at the talisman.
“Very well. If I must escape, unless they are cultivators of the second major realm, they should not be able to catch me.”
“But what about you?”
Zhou Kai felt a sweetness in his heart. Is she worried about me?
He forced a troubled expression. “I was ordered to track your whereabouts. Now the Chen Family members are dead, and you’ve fled. If I return unscathed, the Chen Family in the Hidden Beast Mountain area will find it hard to accept…”
Shen Hanyi was sharp. She understood immediately.
“In that case,” Zhou Kai said, a crafty glint flashing in his eyes. He leaned closer, lowering his voice, though his tone carried a strange intimacy. “Hanyi, do me a favor. Give me a sword strike.”
Hanyi?!
Shen Hanyi’s fingers tightened slightly around the Flight Escape Talisman. Her gaze passed over Zhou Kai’s smiling face. Ultimately, she did not argue over the sudden familiarity.
Zhou Kai continued casually, “Don’t go for the kill. Aim here, slightly off-center on the chest. Make it look serious but avoid the vital organs. Best if you add some sword qi, so it looks like I went through a fierce battle and barely escaped. That way, I can explain myself when I return.”
As he spoke, he pointed to the area slightly to the right of his heart.
The footsteps outside were getting closer.
Shen Hanyi wasted no words and did not dwell on the intimate address.
She raised two fingers like a sword. A cold glint gathered at her fingertips.
Swift. Precise. Ruthless.
A soft sound rang out.
Zhou Kai felt a chill on the left side of his chest, followed by a heart-wrenching pain.
Looking down, he saw a line of blood spray out. His clothes were pierced. The wound was not deep, but the location…
Just a tiny distance from his heart. Perhaps half a cun, about 1.5 centimeters.
Worse still, a cold and sharp sword qi burrowed into his body through the wound, surging toward his heart meridian. His meridians were shaken violently, his vitality churned, and darkness nearly overtook his vision.
“You!” Zhou Kai gritted his teeth in pain, barely able to speak.
This is what you call “slightly off-center”? This is “not harming the vital point”?
This Sword Fairy was too literal! Or was it intentional?!
Shen Hanyi’s expression did not change as she asked coldly, “Is this sufficient?”
“Sufficient… sufficient…” Zhou Kai squeezed out through clenched teeth. His heart meridian felt injured. Without ten days to half a month of medicinal treatment, he would not fully recover.
“Take care.” Shen Hanyi gave him one last look. Without hesitation, her sword erupted with brilliant Golden Hundred Sword Qi as she rushed out.
Zhou Kai inhaled sharply, enduring the intense pain as he collapsed onto the ground.